Competing Wisely...
Getting into a competition with people to improve yourself doesn't seem like a bad thing to do and it's a fair game when you look at it from the perspective that you can easily track your progress when you have a physical competitor. It has worked for not just people but also organizations who actually stick to their clear goals and objectives of achieving growth.
From my experience, I have discovered that people easily deviate from keeping their competition healthy and that has made me believe that crossing the line between a healthy and toxic competition is very easy. It happens a lot and unfortunately, people don't see themselves crossing that line. It usually starts with the aim of growing but it ends up becoming a toxic competition.
People start developing unhealthy habits while competing and it can get so bad quickly. A typical example had to do with a colleague of mine at my previous place of work who decided to compete with one of the best-selling foot soldiers in the Ketu axis.
It all started well and everyone saw the effort he was putting into sales. He got bonuses for the rapid increase in sales surpassing the best salespersons in those routes but it wasn't long before issues started.
I went for a survey in that area and one of my distributors accused the company of crashing the market without informing her. I told her, it's not true, but she showed me proof. Truly, someone has been selling to people, taking 50 naira off every carton they purchase.
50 naira might look like nothing, but it's a big win for market women who buy hundreds of cartons. I reported the issue and the investigation began in that area, but the culprit was just too smart. He didn't have physical contact with his buyers and has been using a strange face to do his dirty job, but not for long. We caught her and she led us to the guy who we have been praising for improving massively.
It turned out that he uses the heavy incentives he receives to cover the differences. We were all disappointed and, unfortunately for me, he was dismissed.
He had a good intention at first, but he couldn't keep up with the pressure and, while trying to stay in control, he switched sides to a toxic competition. It's the same case for many people involved in a toxic competition today; the need to stay relevant or remain in control forces them to go toxic.
If you look at different atrocities happening around the world today involving the youth, it all started with competition. I want to build a house, own a car at this age because someone else did the same and, when their efforts aren't paying as expected, they decide to do dirty things just to keep up.
Despite the struggles with keeping competitions healthy, I still wouldn't write off people using competition as a drive or source of inspiration to grow in life and, like I mentioned earlier, nothing beats a physical competitor, someone who is also trying to still improve; so it's not like you are competing with a stagnant figure.
But instead of competing with people and deviating from your initial goals in the long run, you can just compete with yourself. It's even better because it gives you the privilege to move at your pace, zero pressure, and all you need to do is work on becoming the better version of yourself.
I know there are people who are very disciplined to stay on track without corrupting their competitive spirit; people like that are good to go but must be very careful because people don’t see themselves crossing the line to a toxic competition.
All Image Are Mine.
Competition should be a driving force to inspiration and getting better, not one that we feel so pressured into. There’s absolutely a thin line between a healthy competition and an unhealthy one. One should just watch out for those signs especially when too much pressure is exposing itself.
This competition was the same thing that helped me improve with maths in Junior then but it was just about studies. It's a good thing until jealousy and pressure sets in, it then becomes unhealthy.
Some people are just naturally blessed and endowed. But you that got your talent in something different nkw wants to compare and compete with someone that does their thing’s naturally with ease. It will surely end up wrong.
That's the problem, competing with people to improve life shouldn't be about winning. It should be more about making significant progress.
It's so easy to tip over the line. There's a point where it gets too much and becomes unhealthy. We just have to be able to see it for what it is, knowing that we still have to keep ourselves grounded. Because whether we like it or not, we'll always be in one form of competition or the other.
Yes and somehow, competing is inevitable. We have to always remind ourselves that whatever competition we put ourselves in is for growth and not to prove anything or beat anyone.
Switching to toxic competition is deadly for the competitors as well as society. While a healthy competition is a drives success. I'm glad the culprit learned his lesson. He must have work in positive intentions and not be greedy.
Healthy competition brings growth and development but it's not easy keeping competition healthy because there are so many factors that can easily force us to become unhealthy.
We miss it the moment we try to force things when we seem not to be measuring up, life is a process and another thing we must know is that we can't be like others we are uniquely made with different specifications... Forcing ourselves to match others might lead to problem. The best thing Is to compete with ourselves like you said just that sometimes, when you are alone, you might be limited.
Using others measurement life yardstick for ourselves won't end well so it's best to stay loyal to ourselves. Competition isn't bad but keeping it healthy for a long time is the problem.